Introductory Medical Device Prototyping

Advanced C Programming Topics

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman, http://saliterman.umn.edu/
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota
Operations on Bits
1. Recall there are 8 bits in a byte, and that each bit can be “1” or
“0”.
2. A computer works with binary equivalents of numbers. An
unsigned byte “11111111” would be equal to 255 (or 28-1).
3. The rightmost bit is the lowest order or least significant bit. The
leftmost is the most significant or high-order bit.
4. A negative number is handled as “two’s compliment” (take the
compliment of each bit), reserving the most significant bit to
indicate the sign. A “1” meaning it is a negative number.
Allowing for this, a signed integer of one byte can have a range
of -128 to 127 (-2n-1 to 2n-1-1, where n = 8).
5. Operators include bitwise AND, inclusive-OR, and exclusive-
OR; ones compliment; left shift and right shift.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Visualizing Bits and Byte
Bit 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Power 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
Binary 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Decimal 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
As shown the binary value is 255. If you reserve the 8th bit for
the sign, and bits 7 to 1 were all “1”, then the largest decimal
value would be 127. Why is the largest negative -128?

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Input & Output to a Terminal
1. All I/O operations are carried by calling functions
in the standard C library.
2. Recall: #include <stdio.h> - this file contains
function declarations and macro definitions.
3. Character I/O:
 getchar and putchar
4. Formatted I/O:
 printf and scanf

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Character I/O
getchar (a); For example:
Read a single #include <stdio.h>
character of data char a, b;
and assign it to …
variable “a”. int main (void)
program
{…
putchar (b); getchar (a); //read “a” from terminal
Display the putchar (b); //write “b” to the terminal
character contained …
in the variable “b”. }

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Printf(…)
 printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
 It’s all about formatting the output – defining
what you are outputting and what it should look
like on the display.
 Optional fields are in brackets.
 Order is important.
 We will first look at some tables that summarize
what can be between the % and type (also called
the conversion factor), and then some examples.
 \n means move to the beginning of the next line.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Some Printf(…) Examples
printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
Example: Displayed Result:
printf (“Hello world! \n”); Hello world! (\n - begin new line)

int i = 425;
printf (“%i %o %x %u\n”, i, i, i, i); 425 651 1a9 425

float f = 12.978F;
printf (“%f %e %g\n”, f, f, f); 12.978000 1.297800e+01 12.978

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman Kochan, S.G. Programming in C, 3rd ed., Developer’s Library, Indianapolis, Indiana
(2005).
Character Examples
printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
Example: Displayed Result:
char c = ‘X”;
printf (“%c\n”, c); X
printf (“%3c%3c\n”, c, c); X X (field width of 3)

char s[ ] = “abcdefg”;
printf (“%s\n”, s); abcdefg (display the string)
printf (“%.5s\n”, s); abcde (display 5 characters)
printf (“%10s\n”, s); abcdefg (field width of 10, right
justified)
Prof. Steven S. Saliterman
Flags
printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
Flag Meaning
- Left justify value
+ Precede value with + or -
(space) Precede positive value with space
character ) Zero fill numbers
# Precede octal value with 0, hexadecimal
value with 0x; display decimal point for floats;
leave trailing zeros for g or G format

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman Kochan, S.G. Programming in C, 3rd ed., Developer’s Library, Indianapolis, Indiana
(2005).
Width and .Precision Modifiers
printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
Specifier Meaning
number Maximum size of field
* Take next argument to printf as size of field
.number Minimum number of digits to display for integers; number
of decimal places for e or f formats. maximum number of
significant digits to display for g; maximum number of
characters for s format.
.* Take next argument to printf as precision (and interpret as
indicated in the proceeding row)

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman Kochan, S.G. Programming in C, 3rd ed., Developer’s Library, Indianapolis, Indiana
(2005).
Type Modifiers
printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
Type Meaning
hh Display integer argument as a character
h* Display short integer
l* Display long integer
ll* Display long long integer
L Display long double
j* Display intmax_t or unimax_t value
t* Display ptrdiff_t value
z* Display size_t value
(* Can be placed in front of the n conversion character to indicate the corresponding pointer argument is of the specified type.)

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman Kochan, S.G. Programming in C, 3rd ed., Developer’s Library, Indianapolis, Indiana
(2005).
Conversion Characters
printf (“%[flags] [width] [.prec] [hlL]”, type);
Char Use to Display
i or d Integer
u Unsigned integer
o Octal number
x Hexadecimal integer; using a-f
X Hexadecimal integer; using A-F
f or F Floating point number, to six decimal places by default
e or E Floating point number in exponential format (e places lower and E upper case)
g Floating point number in f or e format
a or A Floating point number in hexadecimal format 0xd.dddp+/-d
c Single character
s Null-terminated string
p Pointer
n Doesn’t print – stores the number of characters written so far by this call
inside the int pointed to by the corresponding argument.
% Percent

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman Kochan, S.G. Programming in C, 3rd ed., Developer’s Library, Indianapolis, Indiana
(2005).
Scanf
1. Method for reading data into your program.
2. Like printf, it takes optional modifiers between the % and
the modifier.
3. Usually, when searching the input stream for a value to
read, it bypasses whitespace characters – blank space,
tabs, carriage return, new line and from feed.
4. A %c will read the next character no matter what it is, or
if it is a string within brackets.
5. When reading the value is terminated when the field
width has been reached or until an invalid character is
read.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Scanf Conversion Modifiers

Modifier Meaning
* Field is to be skipped and not assigned
size Maximum size of the input field
hh Value is to be stored in a signed or unsigned char
h Value is to be stored in a short int
l Value is to be stored in a long int, double or wchar_t
j, z, or t Value is to be stored in a size_t (%j), ptrdiff_t (%z), intmax_t, or
unimax_t (%t)
ll Value is to be stored in a long int
L Value is to be stored in a long double
type Conversion character

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Scanf Conversion Characters
Character Action
d Value to be read is in decimal notation, argument is a pointer
to an int, unless h, l, or ll modifier is used, in which case the
argument is a pointer to a short, long, or long long.
i Like d, except numbers expressed in octal (leading 0) or
hexadecimal (leading 0x or 0X) also can be read.
u Value is an integer, and the argument is a point to an unsigned
int.
o The value to be read is in octal notation, and the argument is a
pointer to an int, unless h, l, or ll modifier used.
x The value to be read is expressed in hexadecimal notation
a, e, f, g The value to be read is expressed in floating-point notation.
The corresponding argument is a pointer to float, unless an l
or L modifier is used.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

More…
Character Action
c The value to be read is a single character. The
argument is a pointer to a character array.
s The value to be read is a sequence of characters.
[…] A character string is to be read.
n Nothing gets read.
p The value to be read is a pointer, and the argument is a
pointer to a pointer to void.
% The next non-whitespace character on input must be a %.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

 Scanf Examples
Example… Text Entered… Reads…
scanf (“%i%c”, &i, &c); 29 w 29 stored in i, space in c

scanf(“%i %c”, &i, &c); 29 w 29 stored in i, w in c

scanf (“%i %5c %*f %s”, &il, text, string); 144abcde 736.55 (wine & 144 stored il,
cheese)
abcde to character array text,

The next call to scanf picks up where the 735.55 is matched but not assigned,
last one left off…
“(wine” to string

scanf(“%s %s %i”, string 2, string 3, &i2); & to string2

cheese) to string3

Waits for an integer to be typed.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman Kochan, S.G. Programming in C, 3rd ed., Developer’s Library, Indianapolis, Indiana
(2005).
Special Functions for Files
1) fopen - opens the file and creates a pointer for
reading, writing or appending to the file;
2) getc and putc - reading and writing characters to
the file.
3) fclose – closes file.
4) feof - test for end of file.
5) fprintf and fscanf – reading or writing data from a
file.
6) fgets and fputs – reading and writing lines of data.
7) stdin, stout and stderr – defined in <stdio.h>

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Preprocessor Command: #define
 #define - assigns symbolic names to a constant
 e.g. #define CARD 6 – defines the name card and
assigns a value of 6. (Capitalized is optional)
 Anywhere (except in a character string) that ‘card’
is used, it will be substituted by the value 6.
 May appear anywhere in the program.
 Examples: #define PI 3.1415926, #define
TWO_PI 2.0 * 3.1415926, #define AND && ,
#define OR ||, or #define EQUALS ==.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

 #define is also known as a macro because it can
take an argument like a function.
e.g. #define SQUARE(x) x*x
y = SQUARE (v); //v2 is assigned
to y
 The type of the argument is unimportant.
 Becomes resident in the program (more
memory but faster execution).

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

#include
 A method of grouping all of your macros together into a
separate file, then including them into your program.
Typically placed at the beginning. Examples: <stdio.h>,
<float.h>, <limit.h>
 These files end with .h

 May be contained in a libraries folder when working with

Arduino and other microcontrollers.
 Placing in < > tells the compiler to look for the file in a
specific location.
 Once created, they can be used in any program.

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Working with Large Programs
 Large programs, i.e. > 100 statements,
might benefit from entering some of the
code in separate modules.
 A module is a function or number of related
functions that you choose to group.
 Allows for easier editing and a team approach.
 These multiple source files are brought
together at the time of compilation (a command
line).

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman

Summary

 Input/output to a terminal, and printf/scanf formatting

 File management
 Preprocessor commands - #define, #include
 Working with large files

Prof. Steven S. Saliterman